Faenare Psalms

The I-Psalms

Psalm of the First

Boria-fel under the snowcades fell
Blackmoore is drifting ash
Evergrun is enshrined in ice.Psalm of Perplex
Morrid-hai wants to set the land aglow
Illsundal pursues the fading Ordana
I am left exposed to the stars

Psalm of Flight

It is Reason that has fled from us
She died upon the Blackmoore plain
She perished in the Ordan-home

Psalm of the Friend
By what name do I call you?
Bird of quill and ink
Of golden feather and golder eyes?

Psalm of Bitter Reunion (I-Psalm, or We-?)
My back is bare and misshapen
Although I am not welcome in forest or city
Existence is sweet alone.

Psalm of the Instrument
What am I but a channel?
I do not speak my words,
They speak me.

Psalm of the Speech (correct name?)
I am the experiment,
Mestotha was wrong.
Crickets do not tire.

The We-Psalms

Psalm of Flight

By song we come to Reason summoned
For song we flee the reason cage.
For music itself we sing to the stars.

Psalm of Teaching

Above all the wars and floods and famine
When nations fall like autumn leaves
The birds — they never die.

Psalm of the Cousin
Timid recluse without ambition you seem
Sitting upon your throne, this forgotten:
Life is neither war nor comfort.

Psalm for the Spirit Hungry

We defend the lands ruled by the natural
What if your game is already dead?
In a rage, you return to your master.

Psalm to the Conqueror
Those who would seize the world never succeed.
The world is a mysterious instrument,
Not made to be handled.
Psalm of the Quest
Order imposed on nature by the vain
Yet the land grows vine bearing a man
and, somewhere in the mists, a stranger.

Psalm of the Glorious Sky Lanterns

Cauldron of life, under an azure sky

Bone of humans and giants under the Maker’s icon

Reflected horror from beyond the stars.

Psalm of the Legend

Death closes all: yet something but the end,

Some work of noble note, may yet be done

Not unbecoming we who strove with gods.


etc.  more to follow…